Virgil van Dijk’s transfer request changes nothing for Southampton, claims manager Mauricio Pellegrino despite the Dutchman clearly angling to leave.
If Liverpool’s transfer window was to be compared to a song, it would be ‘the Scientist’ by Coldplay.
Slow, sad, seemingly never ending while the same four chords (or players) circle around to no end. It’s sprinkled with just enough quality to keep you interested but it ultimately hits home with the line “nobody said it was easy, nobody said it would be this hard.”
If you haven’t already guessed it by the article title, there’s not been any good news on the van Dijk front of late, despite the Dutchman handing in his fiery transfer request.
Despite reports claiming there was no way back for the Southampton captain after his request left fans fuming and the club adamant that they’d let him rot in the stands, Mauricio Pellegrino is still hopeful of a successful reintegration.
“My reaction is the same that I said three weeks ago,” he revealed.
“We are expecting him to come back to train with us because we need the player, we need all of them. Hopefully he can change his point of view to be with us because we need the player. Virgil is an important player. We need him to focus on our club.
“The club was clear from the beginning. We were clear with the player. We cannot control every single situation. We can decide our job, our dynamic in this club, inside our club. Virgil is part of our club, he has a contract. But now we are waiting.”
Pellegrino continued: “I have spoken with Les Reed, I have spoken with the player, but not too much. A couple of meetings. The club was clear, I was clear and the player is in his position.
“We had to keep going because I can’t control the thinking or the feeling of the player at that moment. He is not available this weekend. This week he was with some trouble with a virus. He couldn’t train the last two days.”
The latest revelation from Southampton’s side in this saga is particularly worrying given Klopp’s comments today in his pre-Watford presser that practically confirmed he is not looking at alternative targets this summer. This is especially worrying given the club have already missed out on Naby Keïta and continue to look set to suffer the same fate with the Dutch defender.
“If we bring in players we bring in players because I want them,” Klopp started. “That’s how I see it. There will not be a plan B, plan C or whatever. The players I bring in will be plan A. I cannot bring in a player just to buy a player.”
If you’ll excuse me, I’ve had enough of all this and am off to go and hibernate until September 1st.
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